ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the life of Thomas Colley Grattan. He was born in Ireland and educated for the law but he chose instead to join the army; he was too young, however, to fight in the Napoleonic Wars and by the time he entered service there were few commissions available. His first major success came with the publication of Highways and Byways, or Tales of the Roadside in 1823, a collection of anecdotes from his travels around Europe. Grattan recalls in Beaten Paths his ‘Three days’ Tour with Coleridge and Wordsworth’ (Grattan, II, p. 107), that is to say, the three days he spent with them during their touring holiday in 1828. Coleridge gave brilliant performances in salon conversation and Wordsworth willingly allowed him to dominate; in return, Coleridge gave Wordsworth the opportunity to speak privately to their various admirers by not accompanying them in their lengthy walks.
